"Hope is the thing with feathers"

Distant Hope

There are some days

When one is drained.

Curiosity is flat.

Mental strength is strained

And spiritual energy is depleted.

Today

Watching a goldfinch

At the thistle feeder

Outside the kitchen window

Is the only intellectual inquiry I can make

And the only prayer I can offer.

Yet today

It is all I need

To see hope on the wing.

                           Charles Kinnaird

Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul, 
And sings the tune--without the words, 
And never stops at all.
                               – Emily Dickinson